The Survivors

Another suspenseful novel from Australian author, Jane Harper. Unlike her previous novels set in outback communities or in mountain ranges, this story is set in Evelyn Bay on the southern coast of Tasmania, a popular seaside location in the summer. However the tourist season is over when Kieran, Mia and their new baby return to the town where they grew up to assist Kieran's mother, Verity, sort through and pack up years of belongings as she and her husband, Brian, need to move to the city. Brian has dementia and needs special care.

Many of their former friends still live in Evelyn Bay but it soon becomes obvious that Kieran's return revives tensions in the town as he was considered to be responsible for an accident that occurred twelve years previously, an accident resulting in the death of his brother, Finn, and Finn's friend, Toby. Kieran has never forgiven himself for what happened that day and the guilt he feels brings back bad memories and fears. 

When a young girl is discovered murdered on the beach shortly after Kieran and Mia arrive the tensions in the town increase, new accusations arise and hidden secrets are exposed. The unsolved disappearance of a fourteen year old girl at the same time of the drowning of the two young men also needs to be solved.

As in her other novels the landscape is a major feature of the novel and in this story the unforgiving nature of the sea, the sinister atmosphere of the caves along with the presence of The Survivors, a memorial to those involved in a ship wreck now guarding the bay, are constantly present. But much of the novel also concetrates on the feelings, memories, rumours and suspicions of the townspeople who remember the events of the past and are concerned that another murder has occurred in their small community. The many layers of past and present events intertwine as the investigation into what really happened proceed.